BOOK I. (continued 2)

After Masaccio, two monks distinguished themselves in the Florentine school. The first was a Dominican friar named F. Giovanni da Fiesole, or B. Giovanni Angelico. His first employment was that of ornamenting books with miniatures, an art he learned from an elder brother, who executed miniatures and other paintings. It is said that he studied in the chapel of Masaccio, but it is not easy to credit this when we consider their ages. Their style too betrays a different origin. The works of the friar discover some traces of the manner of Giotto, in the posture of the figures and the compensation for deficiencies in the art, not to mention the drapery which is often folded in long tube-like forms, and the exquisite diligence in minute particulars common to miniature painters. Nor did he depart much from this method in the greatest part of his works, which chiefly consist of scripture pieces of our Saviour, or the Virgin, in cabinet pictures not unfrequently to be met with in Florence. The royal gallery possesses several; the most brilliant and highly finished of which, is the birth of John the Baptist. The Glory,[71] which is in the church of S. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi, from its great size, is among his rarest productions; and it also ranks with the most beautiful. His chief excellence consists in the beauty that adorns the countenances of his saints and angels; and he is truly the Guido of the age, for the sweetness of his colours, which, though in water, he diluted and blended in a manner which almost reaches perfection. He was also esteemed one of the best of his age in works executed in fresco; and he was employed in the decoration of the cathedral of Orvieto, as well as the palace of the Vatican itself, where he painted a chapel—a work much commended by a number of writers. Vasari enumerates Gentile da Fabriano among his disciples, but the dates render this impossible; and says the same of Zanobi Strozzi, a man of noble origin, of whom I do not know that any certain picture exists in a public collection: I only know that, treading in the steps of his master, he surpassed the reputation of a mere amateur. Benozzo Gozzoli, another of his disciples, and an imitator of Masaccio, raised himself far above the majority of his contemporaries.

In a few points he even surpassed his model, as in the stupendous size of his edifices, in the amenity of his landscapes, and in the brilliancy of his fancy, truly lively, agreeable, and picturesque. In the Riccardi palace, once a royal residence, there is a chapel in good preservation, where he executed a Glory, a Nativity, and an Epiphany. He there painted with a profusion of gold and of drapery, unexampled, perhaps, in fresco; and with an adherence to nature that exhibits an image of that age in the portraits, the garments, the accoutrements of the horses, and in the most minute particulars. He long resided at Pisa, and died there, where he ought to be studied; for his compositions in that place are better than those at Florence, and he was there also more sparing in the use of gold. The portrait of S. Thomas Aquinas is highly spoken of by Vasari and Richardson; but they especially notice the pictures from scripture history, with which he ornamented a whole wing of the Campo Santo, "a most prodigious work, sufficient to appal a legion of painters;"[72] and he finished it within two years. Here he displayed a talent for composition, an imitation of nature, a variety in the countenances and attitudes, a colouring juicy, lively, and clear, and an expression of the passions that places him next to Masaccio. I can scarcely believe that he painted the whole. In the Ebriety of Noah, in the Tower of Babel, and in some other pictures, we discern an attempt at surprising, not to be seen in some others, where figures sometimes occur that seem dry and laboured; defects which I am disposed rather to attribute to his coadjutors. Near this great work a monument is erected to his memory by a grateful city, in the public name, with an epitaph that commends him as a painter. Time itself, as if conscious of his merit, has respected this work beyond any other in the Campo Santo.

The other monk was Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite, a genius of a different stamp from B. Giovanni. He received his instruction, not from Masaccio, as Vasari would have it, but from his works. His assiduity in copying him, makes him sometimes appear a second Masaccio, especially in small histories. Some of his choicest are in the sacristy of the church of S. Spirito. In that place, in the Church of S. Ambrose, and elsewhere, his pictures represent the Virgin surrounded by angels, with full and handsome countenances, distinguished by a colouring and a gracefulness peculiarly his own. He delighted in drapery like the neat folds of a surplice; his tints were very clear but delicate, and often subdued by a purple hue not common to other painters. He introduced gigantic proportions in his large frescos in the parish church of Prato; where his pictures of S. Stephen and the Baptist were, in the opinion of Vasari, his capital performances. His forsaking the convent, his slavery in Barbary, his works at Naples, at Padua, and elsewhere, his death, hastened by poison, administered by the relations of a young lady who had borne him a natural child, likewise named Filippo Lippi, are recorded by Vasari. P. della Valle is of opinion that he never professed any order, but in the register of Carmine, his death is noticed in the year 1469, and he is there denominated Fra Filippo. He died at Spoleti when he had nearly completed his large picture for the cathedral. Lorenzo the Magnificent requested his ashes from the townsmen, but was refused; on which he caused a handsome monument to be erected for him, with an inscription by Angelo Poliziano; a circumstance I mention, to demonstrate the respect paid to the art at that period. F. Diamante da Prato, the scholar of Lippi, and his assistant in his last work, imitated him well; as likewise did Francesco Pesello, a Florentine of the same school; his son Pesellino, a short lived artist, followed him with still greater success. The Epiphany of Francesco, described by Vasari, in which there is a portrait of Donato Acciaiuoli, is in the royal gallery. The grado, painted by his son for the apartments of the novices of S. Croce, is there still: on this last are the histories of S. Cosma and S. Damian, of S. Anthony, and S. Francis, denominated by the historian most wonderful productions, and, perhaps, this is not too much to say when we recollect the period.

About this time other able artists flourished at Florence, who were obscured by greater names. Of this number was Berto Linaiuolo, whose pictures in private houses were, for a long time, held in great repute. They were even ordered by the King of Hungary, and procured him great fame in that kingdom. Alessio Baldovinetti, of noble extraction, was a painter particularly diligent and minute, a good worker in mosaic, and the master of Ghirlandaio. In his picture of the Nativity in the porch of the Nunziata, and in his other works, the design, rather than the colouring, may now be said to remain; for the tints have vanished, from a defect in their composition. To them we may add Verrocchio, a celebrated statuary, a good designer, and a painter for amusement rather than by profession. While he painted the Baptism of Christ at S. Salvi, his scholar, L. da Vinci, then a youth, finished an angel, in a manner superior to the figures of his master, who, indignant at his own inferiority to a boy, never more handled the pencil.

Baldinucci imagines that Andrea del Castagno, a name infamous in history, was a scholar of Masaccio: he was rather his imitator, in attitude, relief, and casting of the drapery, than in grace and colouring. He lived at the time that the secret of painting in oil (discovered by John Van Eych, or John of Bruges, about 1410),[73] was known in Italy, not only by report, but by experience of the advantages of this method. Our artists, admiring the harmony, delicacy, and brilliance, which colours received from this discovery, sighed to possess the secret. For this purpose, one Antonello da Messina, who had studied at Rome, travelled to Flanders, and having learned the secret, according to Vasari, from the inventor, went to Venice, where he communicated it to a friend named Domenico. After having practised much in his own country, at Loreto,[74] and other parts of the ecclesiastical states, Domenico came to Florence. There he became the general favourite, and on that account was envied by Castagna, whose dissembled friendship won him to impart the secret, and rewarded him by an atrocious assassination, which he perpetrated, in order that there might be none living to rival him in the art. The assassin was sufficiently skilful to conceal his crime, owing to which a number of innocent persons soon fell under suspicion, which did not induce the real criminal to avow the atrocious deed, until he lay upon his death-bed, when he disclosed his guilt and did justice to the innocence of others. He had the reputation of being the first artist of his time, for vigour, for design, and for perspective, having perfected the art of foreshortening. His finest works have perished: one of his pictures remains at S. Lucia de' Magnuoli, and also some of his historic pieces, executed with great diligence. There is also a Crucifixion, painted on a wall in the monastery of the Angeli.

Many writers have appeared who deny the above mentioned statement of Vasari, and maintain that the art of painting in oil was known long before. It is pretended that it existed in the time of the Romans, an opinion that is adopted by Sig. Ranza, in regard to a picture said to be of S. Helena, consisting of a quilting of different pieces of silk stitched together, exhibiting a picture of the Virgin Saint with the Infant. The heads and hands are coloured in oils; the drapery is shaded with the needle, and in a great measure with the pencil. It is preserved in Vercelli, and from the tradition of its citizens reported by Mabillon (Diar. Ital. Cap. 28), it is said to be the work of S. Helena, mother of Constantine; that is, the patches of silk were sewed by her, and the gilding and painting added to it by her painter, as is conjectured by Ranza. He was not aware that the practice of drawing the Infant Christ in the lap of the Virgin (as we notice in the preface to the Roman school), was posterior to the fourth century; and that other particulars related by him of the picture cannot belong to the age of Constantine; for instance, the hooded mantle of our Lady. From such signs we ought rather to conclude that it is either not an oil painting, or that the figure, at whatever period executed, has been retouched in the same way as that of the Nunziata at Florence, or of the Santa Maria Primerana at Fiesole; the former of which in the drapery, and the latter in the lineaments, are not the same now as in their ancient state.

Others, without ascending to the first ages of the church, have asserted that oil painting was known out of Italy, at least as early as the eleventh century. As a proof of this, they adduce a manuscript of the Monk Teofilo or Ruggiero, no later back than that period, which bears title, "De omni scientiâ artis pingendi," where there is a receipt for the preparation and use of oil from flax.[75] Lessing gave an account of this manuscript in the year 1774, in a treatise published at Brunswick, where he filled the office of librarian to the Prince. Morelli, also, in the Codici Naniani (cod. 39); and more at length Raspe, in his critical "Dissertation on Oil Painting," published in the English language at London, in which he enumerated the existing copies in various libraries, and gave a great part of the manuscript, entered into an examination of the subject. Lastly, Teofilo's treatise is inserted by Christiano Leist, in Lessing's collection, "Zur Geschichte unde Litteratur." Brusw. 1781. The Dottore Aglietti, in his Giornale Veneto, December, 1793, likewise adds his opinion; while the learned Abbate Morelli, in his "Notizia," which is often cited by me in the emendation and illustration of this edition, throws the greatest light upon the present question, agitated by so many, and, we may add, "rem acu tetigit." He, then, will be found to concede to Giovanni, whom he calls Gianes da Brugia, the boast of this great discovery, agreeing with Vasari, though in a different sense from that in which the latter writer views it. For he does not reply to his opponents, that the art of painting, as taught by Teofilo, might have gone into disuse, and was only revived by Giovanni; whence Vasari ventured to commend him as an original inventor; in the same manner as Tiraboschi replied, who followed the Roman anthologists (St. Lett. t. vi. p. 1202). Neither does he bring forward the defence advanced by the Baron de Budberg in the apology of Gio. da Bruges,[76] to the purport that Teofilo taught the art of painting in oil, only upon a ground, without figures, and without ornaments: because Teofilo, in chap. 22, whose words we have given in the note, likewise taught this art. Into what, then, does the long-boasted invention of Giovanni resolve itself? Nothing more than this: according to the ancient practice, a fresh colour was never added to the panel until the first covering had been dried in the sun: a mode, as Teofilo confesses, infinitely tedious: "quod in imaginibus diuturnum et tædiosum nimis est;" (cap. 23); to which I may add, that the colours in this way could never perfectly harmonize. Van Eych saw this difficulty, and he became more truly sensible of it, from the circumstance of having exposed one of his paintings to the sun, in order to harden, when the excess of heat split the panel. Being at that period sufficiently skilled both in philosophical and philological inquiries, he began to speculate on the manner of applying oils, and of their acquiring a proper consistency without the aid of the sun. "By uniting it with other mixtures he next produced a varnish, which, dried, was water proof, and gave a clearness and brilliancy, while it added to the harmony of his colours." Such are the words of Vasari; and thus, in a very few words, we may arrive at a satisfactory solution of the question. Before the time of Van Eych, some sort of method of painting in oil was known, but so extremely tedious and imperfect, as to be scarcely applicable to the production of figure pieces. It was practised beyond the Alps, but is not known to have been in use in Italy. Giovanni carried the first discovery to its completion; he perfected the art, which was afterwards diffused over all Europe, and introduced into Italy, by means of Antonio, or Antonello da Messina.

Here again we are met by another class of objectors, who enter the lists against Van Eych, against Antonello, and more decidedly against Vasari, not with arguments from books, but in the strength of pictorial skill, and chemical experiments.

Malvasia, upon the authority of Tiarini, maintains, that Lippo Dalmasio painted in oil; the Neapolitans, relying upon Marco da Siena, and other men of skill, assert the same of their artists in the thirteenth century; while a few have pretended that some of the pictures[77] produced in the fourteenth century, to be seen at Siena and Modena, in particular that from the hand of Tommaso da Modena, belonging to the Imperial cabinet, and described by me in the native school of that artist, are also coloured in oil; because, after being exposed to water, and analyzed, the colours discovered their elements, and were pronounced oil. In spite, however, of so much skill, and so many experiments, I cannot see that Vasari has yet been detected in an error. It would not be difficult to oppose other experiments and opinions, that might throw light upon the question. To begin with Tuscany:—an analysis of several Tuscan paintings was made at Pisa by the very able chemist Bianchi; and though apparently coloured in oil, the most lucid parts were found to give out particles of wax; a material employed in the encausti, and not forgotten by the Greeks, who instructed Giunta and his contemporaries. It would appear that they applied it as a varnish, to act as a covering and protection from humidity, as well as to give a lucid hue and polish to the colours. It has been observed, that the proportion of wax employed greatly decreased during the fourteenth century; and after the year 1360 fell into disuse, and was succeeded by a vehicle, that carries no gloss. But in these experiments oil was never elicited, if we except a few drops of essential oil, which the learned professor conjectures was employed at that early period to dissolve the wax made use of in painting.

Besides this material, certain gums, and yolks of eggs, which easily deceive the eye of the less skilful, were also used, and very nearly resemble those pictures that display a scanty portion of oil, as is observed by Zanetti, in his account of Venetian painting (p. 20); and the analysis of Tommaso da Modena's picture has tended to confirm his opinion. This information I owe to the late Count Durazzo, who, in 1793, assured me, when at Venice, that he had himself beheld, at Vienna, the process of analyzing such pictures, by very skilful hands, at the command, and in the presence of Prince Kaunitz; and that it was the unanimous opinion of those professors, that no traces of oil were to be found. The colours consisted of the finest gums, mixed with the yolk and white of eggs, a fact that afforded just ground for a like conclusion in regard to similar works by the ancients. I fully appreciate, likewise, the opinion of Piacenza upon the celebrated picture of Colantonio; this I reserve, however, together with some further reflections of my own, for the school of Naples.

I shall here merely inform the reader, that, in regard to the chemical experiments employed on these paintings, Sig. da Morrona[78] observes, that old pictures are often believed to be in a state of purity, when they have been retouched with oil colours at a subsequent period: the use of wax, and of essential oils, or of some such old methods, may frequently give rise to doubt, as I shall soon shew.

Having removed the objections brought against the opinion of Vasari, I must add a few words in regard to a passage where he seems to have forgotten what he had said in the life of Angiol Gaddi, but which will in fact throw further light upon the question. He is giving an account of the paintings and writings of Andrea Cennini, a scholar of Angelo. This person, in 1437, that is, long before the arrival of Domenico, composed a work on painting, which is preserved in MS. in the library of S. Lorenzo. He there treated, says Vasari, of grinding colours with oil, for making red, blue, and green grounds; and various new methods and sizes for gilding, but not figures. Baldinucci examined the same manuscript, and found these words in the 89th chapter:—"I wish to teach thee how to paint in oil on walls, or on panel, as practised by many Germans;" and on consulting the manuscript, I find, after that passage, "and by the same method on iron and on marble; but I shall first treat of painting on walls." In the succeeding chapters he says, that this must be accomplished "by boiling linseed oil." This appears not to accord with the assertion of Vasari, that John of Bruges, after many experiments, "discovered that linseed oil and nut oil were the most drying. When boiled with his other ingredients they formed the varnish so long sought after by him and all other painters." On weighing the evidence, we should, in my opinion, take three circumstances into consideration: The first is, that Vasari does not deny that oil was employed in painting; since he affirms that it was long a desideratum, and consequently had been often attempted; but that alone is perfect which, "when dry, resists water; which brightens the colours, makes them clear, and perfectly unites them." 2. The oil of Cennini might not be of this sort, either because it was not boiled with the ingredients of Van Eych, or because it was intended only for coarse work; a circumstance rendered probable by the fact, that though he painted the Virgin, with several Saints, in the hospital of Bonifazio, at Florence, "in a good style of colouring," yet he never excited the admiration nor the envy of artists. 3. The above remarks forbid us to give implicit confidence to every relation that is given of ancient oil pictures; but we are not blindly to reject all accounts of imperfect attempts of that nature. After this digression we return to our narrative.

The painters that remain to be noticed, approach the golden age of the art, of which their works in some degree participate, notwithstanding the dryness of their design, and the general want of harmony in their colouring. The vehicle of their colours was commonly water, very rarely oil. They flourished in the time of Sixtus IV., who, having erected the magnificent chapel that retains his name, invited them from Florence. Their names are Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Rosselli, Luca da Cortona, and D. Bartolommeo d'Arezzo; whom I shall here introduce, together with their followers. Manni, the historian of some of these artists,[79] conjectures that this work was executed about the year 1474. They were desired to pourtray the history of Moses on one part of the chapel, and that of Christ on the other: thus the old law was confronted by the new, the shade by the light, and the type by the person typified. The pontiff was unskilled in the fine arts, but covetous of the glory they confer on the name and actions of princes. To superintend the work, he made choice of Sandro Filipepi, from his first master, a goldsmith, surnamed Botticelli, and the pupil of F. Filippo; a celebrated artist at that time, and distinguished by his pictures containing a great number of small figures in which he strongly resembled Andrea Mantegna; though his heads were less beautiful. Vasari says, that his little picture of the Calumny of Apelles, is as fine a production as possible, and he pronounces the Assumption, painted for the church of S. Pier Maggiore, to be so excellent, that it ought to silence envy. The former is in the royal gallery, the latter in a private house. What he painted in the Sistine Chapel, however, surpasses all his other works. Here we scarcely recognize Sandro of Florence. The Temptation of Christ, embellished with a magnificent temple, and a crowd of devotees in the vestibule; Moses assisting the daughters of Jethro against the Midianite shepherds, in which there is great richness of drapery, coloured in a new manner; and other subjects, treated with vigour and originality, exhibit him in this place greatly superior to his usual manner. The same observation applies to the painters we are about to notice: such were the effects produced by their emulation; by the sight of a city that is calculated to enlarge the ideas of those who visit it, and by the judgment of a public that is scarcely to be satisfied by what is above mediocrity, because its eye is habituated to what is wonderful.

History does not point out the portion of this work that was performed by Filippino Lippi; the son, as we have already observed, of F. Filippo. It is however highly probable that he assisted; because he was his father's pupil from a very early age, and because the taste of Lippi, that delighted in portraying the usages of antiquity in his pictures, appears to have been formed while he was still young, and engaged in his studies at Rome. In the life which Cellini has written of himself, he tells us that he had seen several books of antiquities drawn by Lippi; and Vasari gives him credit for being the first who decorated modern paintings by the introduction of grotesques, trophies, armour, vases, edifices and drapery, copied from the models of antiquity; but this I cannot confirm, because it was before attempted by Squarcione. It is true that he excelled in those ornaments, in his landscape and in minute particulars. The S. Bernard of the Abbey, the Magi of the royal museum, and the two frescos in S. Maria Novella; the one the history of S. John, the other of S. Philip, the apostles, please more perhaps by these accessaries of the art than by the countenances, which, indeed, have not the beauty and grace of the elder Lippi. They are faithful portraits, but shew no discrimination. He was invited to Rome to ornament a chapel of the Minerva, in which there is an Assumption by his hand, and some histories of Thomas Aquinas, amongst which the Disputation is the best. In this chapel he shews great improvement in his heads, but was nevertheless surpassed in this respect by his pupil Raffaellino del Garbo, who painted a choir of angels on the ceiling, that would alone suffice to justify the name by which he was distinguished. In Monte Oliveto at Florence, there is a Resurrection by Raffaellino, where the figures are small, but so graceful withal, so correct in attitude, and so finely coloured, that we can scarcely rank him inferior to any master of that age. There is mention made by the learned Moreni, in the concluding part of his "Memorie Istoriche," (p. 168) of another of his beautiful altar-pieces, still in existence at S. Salvi, with the grado entire. Some early pictures are in a similar state; but becoming the father of a numerous family, he gradually degenerated in his style, and died in poverty and obscurity.

The second whom I have mentioned among the artists in the Sistine Chapel, is Domenico Corradi, surnamed Del Ghirlandaio, from the profession of his father.[80] He was a painter, an excellent worker in mosaic, and even contributed to the improvement of these arts. He painted in the Sistine Chapel the Resurrection of Christ, which has perished; and the Call of S. Peter and S. Andrew, which still remains. He is that Ghirlandaio, in whose school, or on whose manner, not only Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, his son, but also Bonarruoti, and the best artists of the succeeding era, formed their style. He possessed clearness and purity of outline, correctness of form, and variety of ideas, together with facility and uncommon diligence; he was the first Florentine, who, by means of true perspective, attained a happy method of grouping, and depth of composition.[81] He was among the first to reject the deep golden fringes to the drapery, that the old masters introduced; who, unable to render their figures beautiful, endeavoured, at least, to make them gaudy. Some of his pictures, however, yet remain, moderately illuminated with gold; as for instance, the Epiphany in the church of the Innocents at Florence. It is a fine work, as is also his chapel in the Holy Trinity, with the actions of S. Francis, and his Nativity, in the sacristy of that church. His most celebrated work is the choir of S. Maria Novella, on one side of which he designed the history of John the Baptist, on the other that of our Lady, and on another part the murder of the Innocents, so much commended by Vasari. It contains a vast many portraits of literary men, and noble citizens, and almost every head is from the life; but they are dignified, and judiciously selected. The hands and feet of the figures, however, do not correspond, and attention to this circumstance is the peculiar merit of Andrea del Sarto, who seems to have carried the manner of Ghirlandaio to perfection. Many works of the latter are scattered over Italy, in Rome, in Rimini, and at Pisa, at the Eremitani di Pietra Santa, and the Camaldolesi of Volterra; where besides the paintings in the refectory, there is in the church a figure of S. Romualdo, carved by Diana of Mantua. The pictures of this master should not be confounded with those of his scholars, as happens in many instances. Thus the holy families painted by his brothers or his scholars, frequently pass for his; but they are very far from meriting the praise we have justly bestowed on him. Davide, one of his brothers, became very eminent in mosaic; another, Benedetto, painted more in France than in Italy; Bastiano Mainardi, their brother-in-law, was rather the assistant of Domenico, than a painter of originality. Baldino Bandinelli, Niccolo Cieco, Jacopo del Tedesco, and Jacopo Indaco, are little known; except that the last is recorded as having assisted with Pinturicchio, at Rome, and was the brother of Francesco, better known as a painter at Montepulciano than in Florence.

Cosimo Rosselli, whose noble family has produced several other artists, also wrought in the Sistine Chapel. Few of his works remain in public places in his own country, besides the miracle of the sacrament in the church of S. Ambrose, a fresco picture, full of portraits; in which we discover variety, character, and truth. Vasari praises his labours at Rome, less than those of his fellow artists. Being unable to rival his competitors in design, he loaded his pictures with brilliant colours and gilded ornaments, which, though it was at that time condemned by an improving taste, yet pleased the pontiff, who commended and rewarded him beyond all the other artists. Perhaps his best work there, is Christ preaching on the mount, in which the landscape is said to be the work of Pier di Cosimo, a painter likewise more remarkable for his colouring than his design; as is evident from a picture in the church of the Innocents, and his Perseus in the royal gallery. They are both, however, celebrated in history; the one as the master of del Porta, the other of Andrea del Sarto.

No other Florentine was employed to paint in the Sistine Chapel; but Piero and Antonio Pollaiuoli, who were both statuaries and painters, came there not long afterwards and wrought in bronze the tomb of Sixtus IV. Some of their paintings may yet be seen in the church of S. Miniato, without the walls of Florence, and the altar-piece was transferred to the royal museum. We may there trace the school of Castagno, the master of Piero, in the harsh features, coloured in a strong and juicy manner. Antonio, the scholar of Piero, became one of the best painters of that age. In the chapel of the Marchesi Pucci, at the church of St. Sebastiano de' Servi, there is a martyrdom of the saint by him, which is one of the best pictures of the fifteenth century I have ever seen. The colouring is not in the best style; but the composition rises above the age in which he lived, and the drawing of the naked figure shews what attention he had bestowed on anatomy. He was the first Italian painter who dissected bodies in order to learn the true situations of the tendons and muscles. Both the Pollaiuoli died at Rome, where their tomb is to be seen in S. Piero in Vincoli, ornamented with a picture, which, according to some, typifies a soul in purgatory, and the efficacy of indulgences to deliver it; but whether it is by them, or of their school, I am unable to determine.

The two following artists were brought to the Sistine Chapel from the Florentine territory, the painters of which I shall now consider after those of the capital. Luca Signorelli, the kinsman of Vasari of Arezzo, and the disciple of Piero della Francesca, was a spirited and expressive painter, and one of the first Tuscan artists who designed figures with a true knowledge of anatomy, though somewhat dryly. The cathedral of Orvieto evinces this; and those naked figures which even Michelangiolo has not disdained to imitate. Although in most of his works we do not discover a proper choice of form, nor a sufficient harmony of colouring in some of them, especially in the communion of the Apostles, painted for the Jesuits in his native city, there is beauty, grace, and tints approaching to modern excellence. He painted in Urbino, at Volterra, Florence, and many other cities. In the Sistine Chapel he painted the Journey of Moses with Sefora, and the Promulgation of the Old Law, paintings full of incident, and superior in composition to the confused style of that age. Vasari and Taia have assigned him the first place in this great assemblage of artists; to me he seems at least to have equalled the best of them, and to have improved on his usual style. He had two countrymen of noble families for pupils; Tommaso Bernabei, who followed him closely, and has left some works in S. M. del Calcinaio, and Turpino Zaccagna, whose style was different, as appears from a picture painted for the Church of S. Agatha in Cantalena near Cortona, in 1537.

Don Bartolommeo della Gatta executed none of his own designs in the Sistine Chapel; he lent assistance to Signorelli and to Perugino. He had been educated in the monastery of the Angeli, at Florence, rather as a painter of miniatures than of history. On being appointed Abbot of S. Clement, in Arezzo, he exercised both; and was also skilled in music and in architecture. There is of his works only a S. Jerome, executed in the chapel of the cathedral, as we find from a MS. guide to the city, and which was transferred into the sacristy in 1794. The abbot instructed Domenico Pecori and Matteo Lappoli, two gentlemen of Arezzo, who improved themselves in the art on other models, especially the first, as is evident from a picture in the parish church, in which the Virgin receives under her mantle the people of Arezzo, who are recommended to her protection by their patron saints. In it are heads in the style of Francia, good architecture, judicious composition, and a moderate use of gold.

Two miniature painters, according to Vasari, learned much from the precepts, or rather from the example of the abbot. These were Girolamo, also named by Ridolfi, as a pupil of the Paduan school, at the same time with Lancilao; and Vante, or as he subscribed himself, Attavante Fiorentino. Two of his letters are inserted in the third volume of the Lettere Pittoriche; and it may be collected from Vasari and Tiraboschi,[82] that Vante ornamented with miniatures many books for Matthias, king of Hungary, which afterwards remained in the Medicean and Estensean libraries. The learned Sig. Ab. Morelli, who has the direction of the library of S. Mark at Venice, shewed me one in that place. It is a work of Marziano Capella, where the subject is poetically expressed by the painter. The assembly of the Gods, the emblems of the arts and sciences, the grotesque ornaments here and there set off with little portraits, discover in Vante a genius that admirably seconded the ideas of the author. The design resembles the best works of Botticelli; the colouring is gay, lively, and brilliant; the excellence of the work ought to confer on the artist greater celebrity than he enjoys. In the life of D. Bartolommeo, Vasari, or his printers, have confounded Attavante with Gherardo, the miniature painter, who at the same time was a worker in mosaic, an engraver in the style of Albert Durer, and a painter; of him there are some remains in each of these arts; but they were certainly different individuals, as is demonstrated by Sig. Piacenza.

Having a little before named Pietro Perugino, who long taught in Tuscany, we may here mention the pupils who retained his manner. These were Rocco Zoppo, whose Madonnas remain in many private houses in Florence, I believe, to this day, and are in the manner of Pietro; Baccio Ubertini, a great colourist, and on that account willingly adopted as an assistant of his master; Francesco, the brother of Baccio, surnamed Bacchiacca, known at S. Lorenzo by the martyrdom of S. Arcadius, executed in small figures, in which, as well as in the grotesque, he was very eminent, and nearly approached the modern style. To these artists who lived in Florence, their native country, we may add Niccolo Soggi, likewise a Florentine, but who, to shun the concourse of more able painters, fixed his residence in Arezzo, where he had sufficient employment. His accuracy, his studious habits, and his high finish, may be there contemplated in the Christ in the Manger, in the church of Madonna delle Lagrime, and in many other places in the city and its environs. It would have been fortunate had he possessed more genius, but this gift of nature, which, to use the words of a poet,[83] confers immortality on books, and I would add pictures, was not granted to Soggi. Vasari has given this character of a diligent, but meagre, and frigid painter, also to Gerino da Pistoia, in which place one of his pictures, now in the royal gallery, was painted for the monks of S. Pier Maggiore; several others are in the city of S. Sepulcro, and some even in Rome, where he assisted Pinturicchio. With the two preceding, I class Montevarchi, a painter so named from his own country, beyond which he is almost unknown. Among these artists, though they were scholars of Pietro, we find imitators of the Florentines of the fourteenth century. I omit the name of Bastiano da S. Gallo, who continued with him only a short time, and left him on account of the aversion he had conceived to the dryness of his style. In the Florentine history, by Varchi (book 10), we find mention of a Vittorio di Buonaccorso Ghiberti, who on occasion of the siege of Florence by the family of the Medici, in 1529, painted the figure of the Pontiff, Clement VII. on the façade of the principal chamber of the Medici, in the last act of hanging from the gallows. But neither of this, nor of any other production from so infamous a hand, do there remain any traces in Florence, at least that I have been able to discover, from which to judge either of the manner or the master of Vittorio.

I close the catalogue of old Tuscan painters with an illustrious native of Lucca, named the elder Zacchia, who was educated at Florence, though not invariably adhering to the taste of that ancient school, either in design, which was his chief excellence, or in an outline somewhat harsh and cutting, which was his greatest defect. He obtained the name of the elder, to distinguish him from another Zacchia, who, on the other hand, shewed more softness of contour, and more strength of colouring, but in design, and in every other respect, was held in less estimation. I know only of one picture by the latter artist, which is in the chapel of the Magistrates; but several altar-pieces by the former, are to be seen in the churches of Lucca, and among them an Assumption in that of S. Augustine; a picture displaying much study and elegance, and among his last works, as I am led to believe by its bearing the date 1527. One of his Madonnas, surrounded by saints, formerly in the parish church of S. Stefano, is now in the house of Sig. March. Jacopo Sardini, which is enriched by other paintings, by a valuable collection of drawings, and still more by the presence of its learned possessor, to whom I am indebted for many notices interspersed throughout this work.

Such was the state of the art in Tuscany, about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Much was then attained, because nature began to be imitated, especially in the heads, to which the artists imparted a vivacity, that even at this day is surprising. On viewing the figures and portraits of those times, they actually appear to look at, and to desire to enter into conversation with the beholder. It still remained, however, to give ideal beauty to the figure, fulness to design, and harmony to colouring, a true method to aerial perspective, variety to composition, and freedom to the pencil, which on the whole was still timid. Every circumstance conspired to this melioration of the art in Florence as well as in other places. The taste for magnificent edifices had revived throughout Italy. Many of the finest churches, many public edifices, and ducal palaces, which still remain at Milan, Mantua, and Venice, in Urbino, Rimini, Pesaro, and Ferrara, were executed about this period; not to mention those buildings in Florence and in Rome, where magnificence contended with elegance. It became necessary to ornament them, and this produced that noble emulation among artists, that grand fermentation of ideas, which invariably advances the progress of art. The study of poetry, so analogous to that of painting, had increased to a degree which conferred on the whole age the epithet of Golden; a name which it certainly did not merit on the score of more severe studies. The design of the artists of that period, though something dry, was yet pure and correct, and afforded the best instruction to the succeeding age. It is very justly observed, that scholars can more easily give a certain fulness to the meagre outline of their models, than curtail the superfluity of a heavy contour. On this account, some professors of the art are inclined to believe, that it would be much more advantageous to habituate students in the beginning, to the precision characteristic of the fifteenth century, than to the exuberance introduced in after-times. Such circumstances produced the happiest era that distinguishes the annals of painting. The schools of Italy, owing to mutual imitation, before that period strongly resembled each other; but having then attained maturity, each began to display a marked and peculiar character.

That of the Florentine school I shall describe in the next Epoch; but I first propose to treat of several other arts analogous to that of painting, and in particular of engraving upon copper, the discovery of which is ascribed to Florence. To this the art is indebted for an accession of new aids; the work of an artist, before confined to a single spot, was diffused through the world, and gratified the eyes of thousands.

FLORENTINE SCHOOL.

EPOCH I.

Origin and progress of Engraving on Copper and Wood.

SECTION III.

The subject of which I propose here to treat, ought to be more carefully examined than any other portion of this work. The age in which I write is, we know, by many called the age of brass, inasmuch as it has been less productive of great names and great pictoric works, than the preceding; yet I believe we might better denominate it such from the number of engravings, which have recently been carried to a high degree of excellence. The number of their connoisseurs has increased beyond calculation; new collections every where appear, and the prices have proportionably advanced, while treatises upon the art are rapidly multiplied. It has become a part of liberal knowledge to discern the name and hand of a master, as well as to specify the most beautiful works of each engraver. Thus, during the decline of painting, the art of engraving on copper has risen in estimation; modern artists in some points equal or surpass the more ancient; their reputation, their remuneration, and the quick process of their labours, attract the regard of many men of genius born to adorn the arts, who to the loss of painting, devote their attention to the graver.

The origin of this art is to be sought for in that of cutting on wood, just as in printing, the use of wooden types led to the adoption of metal. The period of the first invention of wood engraving is unknown; the French and the Germans tracing it to that of playing-cards, which the former affirm were first used in France in the time of Charles V.; while the latter maintain they were in use much earlier in Germany, or before the year 1300.[84] Both these opinions were first attacked by Papillon, in his "Treatise upon cutting in Wood," where he claims the merit of the discovery for Italy, and finds the most ancient traces of the art about the year 1285, at Ravenna. His account of it is republished in the preface to the fifth volume of Vasari, printed at Siena; but it is mixed up with so many assertions, to which it is difficult to give credit, that I must decline considering it at all. The Cav. Tiraboschi is a far more plausible and judicious advocate in favour of Italy.[85] On the subject of cards, he brings forward a MS. by Sandro di Pippozzo di Sandro, entitled Trattato del Governo della Famiglia. It was written in 1299, and has been cited by the authors of the Della Cruscan dictionary, who quote, among other passages, the following words: "if you will play for money, or thus, or at cards, you shall provide them," &c. We may hence infer, that playing-cards were known with us earlier than elsewhere, so that if the invention of stamping upon wood was derived from them, we have a just title to the discovery. In all probability, however, it does not date its origin so early; the oldest playing-cards were doubtless the work of the pen, and coloured by the old illuminators, first practised in France, and not wholly extinct in Italy at the time of Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan.[86]

The first indication we meet with of printed play-cards, is in a public decree issued at Venice in 1441; where it says that "the art and trade of cards and printed figures, that is carried on at Venice," was on the decline, "owing to the great increase of playing-cards with coloured figures stamped," which were introduced from abroad; and that such importation should be prohibited for the future. Sig. Zanetti, to whom we are indebted for this information,[87] is of opinion, that they were in use long before 1441; because the art is seen to have first flourished there, afterwards to have fallen into disuse, and again revived, owing to the protection afforded it by the State. These vicissitudes, that suppose the lapse of many years, will carry us back at least to the commencement of the fifteenth century. To this period, it appears, we ought to refer those ancient specimens of play-cards, which were collected for the cabinet of Count Giacomo Durazzo, formerly imperial ambassador at Venice, and are now to be seen in that of the Marquis Girolamo, his nephew. They are of larger dimensions than those now in use, and are of a very strong texture, not unlike that of the paper made of cotton, found in the ancient manuscripts. The figures are exhibited on a gold ground in the manner before described;[88] there are three kings, two queens, and two knaves, one on horseback; and each has a club, or sword, or money. I could perceive no trace of suits, either because they had not then come into use, or more probably because so limited a number of cards can convey no complete idea of the whole game. The design approaches very nearly to that of Jacobello del Fiore; to the best judges the workmanship appears the effect of printing, the colours being given by perforations in the die. I know of no other more ancient specimen of its kind.

In the meanwhile printing of books being introduced into Italy, it was quickly followed by the practice of ornamenting them with figures in wood. The Germans had afforded examples of cutting sacred images in this material,[89] and the same was done in regard to some of the initial letters during the early progress of typography, a discovery which was extended at Rome, in a book published in 1467, and at Verona in another, with the date of 1472. The former contains the Meditations of Card. Turrecremata, with figures also cut in wood, and afterwards coloured: the latter bears the title of Roberti Valturii opus de re militari, and it is adorned with a number of figures, or drawings of machines, fortifications, and assaults; a very rare work, in the possession of Count Giuseppe Remondini, along with many other specimens of the earliest period, collected for his private library, where I saw it. It is worth remarking, that the book of Turrecremata was printed by Ulderico Han, that of Valturio by Gio. da Verona, and that in this last the wood-cuts are ascribed to Matteo Pasti, the friend of Valturio, and a good painter for those times.[90] After this first progress the art of wood engraving continued gradually to advance, and was cultivated by many distinguished men, such as Albert Durer in Germany; in Italy by Mecherino di Siena, by Domenico delle Greche, by Domenico Campagnola, and by others down to Ugo da Carpi, who marks a new epoch in this art, by an invention, of which we shall speak in the school of Modena.

If it be the progress of the human mind to advance from the more easy to more difficult discoveries, we may venture to suppose that the art of engraving on wood led to that of engraving on copper; and so, to a certain extent, it probably did. Vasari, however, who wrote the history of Tuscan professors, rather than of painting itself, refers its origin to works in niello, or inlaid modelling work, a very ancient art, much in use, more especially at Florence, during the fifteenth century; though it was quite neglected in the following, in spite of the efforts of Cellini to support it. It was applied to household furniture, silver ornaments, and sacred vessels, such as holy cups and vases, to missals and other devotional books, and to reliquaries; as well as to profane purposes, as adorning the hilts of swords, table utensils, and many kinds of female ornaments. In some kinds of ebony desks and escrutoires it was held in great request, for its little silver statues, and modelled plates, representing figures, histories, and flowers. In the cathedral of Pistoia there still remains a large silver palliotto, adorned in places with plates, on which are figured images in niello, and little scripture histories. The method was to cut with the chisel upon the silver whatever history, portrait, or flowers, was required,[91] and afterwards to fill up the hollow part of the engraving with a mixture of silver and lead, which, from its dark colour, was called, by the ancients, nigellum, which our countrymen curtailed into niello; a substance which, being incorporated with the silver, produced the effect of shadow, contrasted with its clearness, and gave to the entire work the appearance of a chiaroscuro in silver. There were many excellent niellatori, or inlayers, who cast models with this substance, such as Forzore, brother to Parri Spinelli of Arezzo, Caradosso and Arcioni of Milan;[92] and three Florentines, who rivalled each other at S. Giovanni, Matteo Dei, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, and Maso Finiguerra; specimens of whose paci, cut with wonderful accuracy, acquired for them the highest reputation.

We are to attribute to Maso, says Vasari, "the beginning of engraving upon copper," an art, which for the sake of greater perspicuity, I shall distinguish into three different states; the first of which will be found as follows. Finiguerra was in the habit of never filling the little hollows or cuts prepared in the silver plate until he had first made proof of his work. "For this purpose, as in taking a cast, he impressed them with earth, upon the top of which having thrown a quantity of liquid sulphur, they became imprinted, and filled with smoke; which, with the aid of oil, gave him the effect of the work in silver. He also produced the same with moistened paper, and with the same tint or ink, pressing it sufficiently hard with a round roller, with a smooth surface throughout. This gave them not only the effect of being printed, but that of having been designed with ink."[93] So far we quote Vasari in the preface to his Life of Marc Antonio. He adds, that in this plan Finiguerra was followed by Baldini, a Florentine goldsmith; next to whom he mentions Botticelli; and he might have added the name of Pollaiuolo. Finally, he concludes that the invention was communicated from Florence to Mantegna at Rome, and to Martino, called De Clef, in Flanders.

These proofs, the first of their kind, made by Finiguerra, have, for the most part, perished. Some, which are attributed to him, in possession of the fathers of Camaldoli, are not ascertained to be his.[94] We are assured, however, that the sulphur of the pace[95] cut for S. Giovanni in 1452, upon which he represented the Assumption of our Lady, in a variety of minute figures, is from his hand. It was formerly in the museum of the Proposto Gori, who gave a description of it in his Dittici (a treatise upon a peculiar kind of altar-pieces, tom. iii. p. 315), and it is now in the Durazzo cabinet, with a memorandum in Gori's own hand, in which he declares that he had compared it with the original.[96] Of the proofs made on paper none are ascertained to exist, with the exception of that of the Assumption recognized by the Ab. Zani, in the national collection at Paris. It was made known by him in the year 1803; and to this I may add the Epiphany, in an inferior style, but more exactly finished, which I found in the possession of the Senator Martelli, besides a duplicate belonging to S. E. Seratti. It appears from its style, the work of Finiguerra, and to have been executed before the Assumption. It is doubtful whether specimens exist in the ducal gallery, a question which I leave to the solution of abler pens than mine. We have in the Durazzo collection, the proofs or models of many silversmiths, whose names are unknown; and for many more we are indebted to Sig. Antonio Armanno, an excellent connoisseur in prints, to whom I shall have occasion to recur more than once. Following the ideas thrown out by Vasari in the passage cited, he concluded that these impressions might happen to have been confounded with pen designs, owing to the resemblance between them; he therefore sought for them in collections of designs, and, having recognized them, purchased them for Count Giacomo, his patron.

Many of these were met with in the ancient Gadi gallery at Florence; the work of artificers much inferior to Finiguerra, at least if we except two specimens not unworthy even of his hand. To these a number of others were afterwards added from different schools of Italy. Sometimes we may gather their origin from the design; sometimes with more certainty from inscriptions, and other unequivocal signs of the period. For instance, we read the following words in a Presepio,[97] engraved in reversed characters: "Dominus Philippus Stancharius fieri fecit;" where the family which is named, along with other circumstances, shew it to have been executed at Bologna. One small print represents a woman turning towards a cat; and on it is written, also in reverse, "Va in la Caneva;" in another we read Mantengave Dio; both which are either Lombard or Venetian, if we may judge from the dialect. From all this we have a right to conclude that Vasari's words, which ascribe to Finiguerra the practice of proving his works before he inserted the niello, are not to be limited to him only, or to his school. On the contrary, it appears that Caradosso, as well as all the best Italian artificers, considered it as no small portion of their art, and that they only attained correctness in the process of inlaying and modelling by dint of such proofs, and not by mere chance. Nor does Vasari's silence militate against this. He repeatedly complains, in different parts of his work, that he could not obtain sufficiently full and satisfactory information regarding the Venetian and Lombard schools; and if he confesses his ignorance of so many things pertaining to their schools of painting, it is not surprising that he should know less of their engraving.

The proofs, therefore, of the niellatori on paper are to be found in all parts of Italy, and they may be particularly known from the position of the letters, which being written on the original models in the ordinary way, appear in the impression like the eastern characters, from right to left; and in like manner the other part of the impression is seen in reverse; as for instance, a saint is seen standing on the left hand, who, from his dignity, ought to have occupied the right, and the actors all write, play music, and do every thing with the left hand. There are other signs which serve to distinguish them; because, having been pressed by hand, or with a roller, they leave no mark or furrows in the outlines; nor are we to look for that delicacy and precision in the lines that appear in impressions from under the press. They are moreover characterized by their colour, which merely consisted of lamp black and of oil, or of some other very slight tint; though both this and the preceding are dubious signs, as we shall shew. It is conjectured that proofs of a similar[98] nature were made by silver carvers, in regard to their graphic labours, and to others in which the niello was not employed. At all events they preserved them in their studies, and in those of their pupils, to whom they afforded a model; and in this way several have been handed down to our own times.

From these early efforts, the art gradually advanced, as it appears to me, until it attained what I call the second state of the impression. When the pleasing effect of these proofs was seen, the idea was struck out, of forming works in the same delicate and finished taste, and for this purpose to make use of the same means as had been until then adopted for impressions in wood. We might thus observe, that in the workshop of the goldsmith was prepared the art of chalcography, and the first labours were executed upon silver, upon tin, or, as Heineken observes, upon some composition less hard than copper. We may remark, that such was the practice of the Italians, before they cut their subjects in copper; but whatever material the first goldsmiths might adopt, it was not difficult for them to substitute for the shadow they produced by the niello, the shadow of the cut itself, and to execute the subject on the reverse, in order to receive the impression right. From that time, they proceeded gradually to refine the art. Both the roller and the press which they had then in use were very imperfect, and, to improve the impression, they first enclosed the plate in a frame of wood, with four small nails to prevent its slipping; upon this they placed the paper, and over it a small moist linen cloth, which was then pressed down with force. Hence, in the first old impressions, we may plainly trace on the reverse the marks of the linen, for which felt was next substituted, which leaves no trace behind it.[99] They next made trial of various tints; and gave the preference to a light azure or blue, with which the chief part of the old prints are coloured.[100] The same method was adopted in forming the fifty cards, which are commonly called the game of Mantegna. I saw them, for the first time, in possession of his excellency the Marchese Manfredini, major-domo to the Duke of Tuscany, whose cabinet is filled with many of the choicest prints. Another copy I found in possession of the Ab. Boni, and a third formerly belonging to the Duke of Cassano, was afterwards transferred to the very valuable collection made by the Senator Prior Seratti. There is also a copy of this game on a large scale, with some alterations (as, for instance, La Fede bears a large instead of a small cross, as in the original), and is of a much later date. A second copy, not so very rare, with a number of variations, is in existence; and in this the first card bears the Venetian lion as ensign, with the two letters C. and E. united. The card of the Doge is inscribed the Doxe; and elsewhere we read in the same way, Artixan, Famejo, and other words in the Venetian idiom, which proves that the author of so large and fine a work must have belonged to the city of Venice or to the state. The design displays much of Mantegna, and of the Paduan school; though the cut is not ascertained to be that of Andrea, or of any other known master of that age. A careful but timid hand is discernible, betraying traces of a copyist of another's designs, rather than of an original invention. Time only may possibly clear up this doubt.

Proceeding from cards to books, we are made acquainted with the first attempts at ornamenting them with cuts in metal. The most celebrated of these consist of the Monte Santo di Dio, and the Commedia of Dante, both printed at Florence, and the two editions of Ptolemy's Geography, at Rome and Bologna; to which we may add the Geography of Berlinghieri, printed at Florence; all the three accompanied with tables. The authors of these engravings are not well known; except so far as we learn from Vasari, that Botticelli was one who acquired the most reputation. He represented the Inferno, and took the impression; and the two histories, executed by Gio. de Lamagna in his Dante, display all the design and composition of Sandro, so as to leave no doubt of their being his.[101] Other prints are likewise found pasted in a few of the copies of the same edition, amounting, more or less, to the number of nineteen; and their manner is more coarse and mean,[102] as we are informed by the Cav. Gaburri, who collected them for his cabinet. They must have been executed by some inferior hand, and with the knowledge of the printer, who had left blank spaces in parts of the work intended to receive the engravings, not yet completed on the publication of the work. Of a similar cast were other anonymous engravers of that period, nor is there any name, except those of Sandro and of Pollaiuolo, truly distinguished in the art among the Florentines. In Upper Italy, besides Mantegna, Bartolommeo Montagna, his pupil, from Vicenza, (to whom some add Montagna his brother,) and Marcello Figolino, their fellow citizen, were both well known. Figolino is asserted to have been the same artist as one Robetta, or rather one who subscribes himself so, or R. B. T. A.; yet he ought not to be separated from the Florentine school, to which Vasari refers him, which the character of his design confirms. The names of Nicoletto da Modena, F. Gio. Maria da Brescia, a Carmelite monk, and of his brother Gio. Antonio, have also survived; as well as Giulio and Domenico Campagnola of Padua. There are not a few anonymous productions which only announce that they were executed in the Venetian or Lombard manner. For such artificers as were in the habit of taking impressions from the roller, either wholly omitted names, or only affixed that of the designer, or merely gave their own initials, which are now either doubtful, or no longer understood. For instance, they would write M. F., which Vasari interprets into Marc-antonio Francia, while others read Marcello Figolino, and a third party, Maso Finiguerra; this last quite erroneously, as, after the most minute researches, made by the very able Cavaliere Gaburri, throughout Florence, there is no engraving of that artist to be found.[103] In the Durazzo collection, after twelve plates, which are supposed to be proofs of the silver engravers, printed in reverse, we find several others of the first impressions taken with the roller, and appearing to the right; but not unlike the proofs in the mechanical part of the impression, and in regard to the uncertainty of their artists. For this, and other information on the subject, I am indebted to the kindness of the Ab. Boni, who having enjoyed the familiar acquaintance of Count Giacomo, is now engaged in preparing a full account of his fine collection.

The last state of engraving on copper I consider to be that in which the press and the printing ink being now discovered, the art began to approach nearer perfection; and it was then it became first separated from the goldsmith's art, like the full grown offspring, received pupils, and opened its studio apart. It is difficult to fix the precise epoch when it attained this degree of perfection in Italy. The same artificers who had employed the roller, were some of them living, to avail themselves of the press, such as Nicoletto da Modena, Gio. Antonio da Brescia, and Mantegna himself, of whose prints there exist, as it were, two editions; the one with the roller, exhibiting faint tints, the other in good ink, and from the press. Then the engravers first becoming jealous lest others should appropriate their reputation, affixed their own names more frequently to their works; beginning with their initials, and finally attaching the full name. The Germans held out the earliest examples, which our countrymen imitated; with one who surpassed all his predecessors, the celebrated Marc Antonio Raimondi, or del Francia. He was a native of Bologna, and was instructed in the art of working in niello by Francesco Francia, in which he acquired singular skill. Proceeding next to engravings upon metal, he began with engraving some of the productions of his master. At first he imitated Mantegna, then Albert Durer, and subsequently perfected himself in design under Raffaello d'Urbino. This last afforded him further assistance; he even permitted his own grinder of colours, Baviera, to manage the press, in order that Marc Antonio might devote himself wholly to engraving Raffaello's designs, to which we owe the number we meet with in different collections. He pursued the same plan with the works of antiquity, as well as those of a few moderns, of Bonarruoti, of Giulio Romano, and of Bandinelli, besides several others, of which he was both the designer and engraver. Sometimes he omitted every kind of mark, and every letter; sometimes he adopted the little tablet of Mantegna, either with letters or without. In some engravings of the Passion he counterfeited both the hand and the mark of Albert Durer: and not unfrequently he gave the initial letters of his own and of Raffaello's name, and that of Michel Angiolo Fiorentino upon those he engraved after Bonarruoti. He was assisted by his two pupils, Agostin Veneziano and Marco Ravignano, who succeeded him in the series of engravings from Raffaello; which led Vasari to observe, in his Life of Marc Antonio, that, "between Agostino and Marco nearly all Raffaello's designs and paintings had been engraved." These two executed works conjointly; till at length they parted, and each affixed to his productions the two initial letters of his name and country.

It was thus the art of engraving in the studio of Raffaello, and by means of Marc Antonio, and of his school, rose to a high degree of perfection, not many years after its first commencement. Since that period no artist has appeared capable of treating it with more knowledge of design, and with more precision of lines and contour; though in other points it has acquired much from the hand of Parmigianino, who engraved in aqua-fortis,[104] from Agostino Caracci, and from different foreigners of the last century, among whom we may notice Edelink, Masson, Audran, Drevet, and, in the present age, several, both Italians and strangers, of whom, in this place, we must refrain from speaking.

I may be permitted, in this place, to enter into a brief investigation of the long contested question of engraving upon copper, whether its discovery is to be attributed to Germany or to Italy; and if to Italy, whether to Florence or to some other place. Much has been written upon the subject, both by natives and foreigners, but, if I mistake not, it has scarcely been treated with that accuracy which is necessary for the attainment of truth. That it is quite requisite to divide this branch of art into three several states or stages, I trust I have already sufficiently shewn. In following up this division we shall have a better chance of ascertaining what portion of merit ought to be awarded to each country. Vasari, together with Cellini, in his "Treatise upon the Goldsmith's art," as well as most other writers, are inclined to refer its commencement to Florence, and to the artist Finiguerra. Doubts have since arisen; while so recent an author as Bottari, himself a Florentine, mentions it as a circumstance not yet ascertained. The epoch of Maso was altered through mistake, by Manni, who speaks of his decease as happening previous to 1424.[105] This has been corrected by reference to the authentic books of the Arte de' Mercanti, in which the pace already cited is mentioned as being paid for in the year 1452. About the same time, Antonio Pollaiuolo, still a youth, as we learn from Vasari, in his life, was the rival of Finiguerra in the church of S. Giovanni; and as Maso had at that period already acquired great celebrity, we may conclude that he was of a mature age, and experienced in the art. We have further a right to suppose, with Gaburri and Tiraboschi, that having then taken proofs "of all the subjects which he had engraved on silver," he had observed this custom from the year 1440, and perhaps earlier; and we thus discover the elements of chalcography in Florence, satisfactorily deduced from history.[106] For neither with the aid of history, monuments, nor reasoning, am I enabled to discover an epoch equally remote belonging to any other country; as we shall shew, in the first place, in regard to Germany. It possesses no annals so far back as that period. The credulity of Sandrart[107] led him to question the truth of this, by referring to a small print of uncertain origin, on which he believed he could read the date 1411, and upon another that of 1455. At this period, however, when the authority of Sandrart is of small account, no less from his frequent contradictions than his partiality, which has rendered him suspected even by his own countrymen, we may receive his two engravings as false coin, not valuable enough to purchase the credit of the discovery from us. Those two distinguished writers, Meerman,[108] and the Baron Heineken,[109] were equally bent upon refuting him. They do not pretend to trace any earlier engraver in Germany than Martin Schön, called by others Bonmartino, and by Vasari, Martino di Anversa,[110] who died in 1486. Some are of opinion that he had two brothers, who assisted him, but who are unknown; and not long after appear the names of Israel Meckeln,[111] Van Bockold, Michael Wolgemuth, master to Albert Durer, with many others who approached the sixteenth century. It is contended, however, that engraving on copper was known in Germany anterior to these; as there exist specimens by doubtful hands, which have the appearance of being much earlier. Meerman, on the authority of Christ,[112] adduces one with the initials C. E. and the date 1465, besides two described by Bar. Heineken, dated 1466, the first of which is signed f. s, the second b x s, and both the artists unknown. He declares that he had never seen older engravings that bore a name, (p. 231,) and observes that their manner resembles that of Schön, only coarser, which leads him to suspect that the authors must have been his masters, (p. 220). But whoever was Schön's master, Heineken concludes he must have flourished more than ten years earlier than his time, so as to bring it back to 1450, when the art of engraving by the burin was undoubtedly practised in Germany, (p. 220). And as if this appeared too little to be granted, he adds, about four pages further on, "that he was tempted to place the epoch of its discovery at least towards the year 1440."

The cause is well pleaded, but it is not carried. Let us try to confront reasons with reasons. The Italians have the testimony of history in their favour; the Germans have it against them. The former, without any attempt at exaggeration, proceed as far back as 1440, and even farther;[113] the latter, by dint of conjecture, reach as far as 1450, and are only tempted to anticipate it by ten years date. The Italians commence the art with Maso, not from his master; the Germans are not content to date from Schön, but from his master, an advantage they either deny to Italy, and thus fail to draw an equal comparison; or if they concede the master, we still anticipate by ten years their origin of chalcography. The Italians, again, confirm the truth of their history by a number of authentic documents, proofs in niello, first impressions, and the progress of the art from its earliest stages to maturity. The Germans supply their historic deficiency by monuments, in part proved to be false, in part doubtful, and which are easily convicted of insufficiency for the proposed object. Because who can assure us that the prints of 1465 or 66, are not the production of the brothers or the disciples of Schön, since Heineken himself confesses that they were possibly the work of some contemporary artists, his inferiors? Do we not find in Italy that the followers of Botticelli are inferior to him, and appear to be of earlier date? Moreover, who can assure us that Schön was instructed by a master of his own nation; when all his engravings that have been hitherto produced, appear already perfect in their kind;[114] nor do we find mentioned in Germany either proofs in niello, or first essays in metals of a softer temper? The fact therefore, most probably is, what has invariably obtained credit,—that the invention was communicated from Italy to Germany, and as a matter not at all difficult to the goldsmiths, was speedily practised there with success; I might even add, was greatly improved. For both the press and printer's ink being well known there, artists were enabled to add to the mechanic part of the art, improvements with which Italy was unacquainted; I will produce an example of what I mean, that cannot fail to convince. Printing of books was discovered in Germany: history and monuments alike confirm it, which are to be traced gradually from tabular prints to moveable types, still of wood, and from these to characters of metal. In such state was the invention brought to Italy, where, without passing through these intermediate degrees, books were printed not only in moveable characters of metal, but with tables cut in copper, thus adding to the art a degree of perfection which it wanted. Heineken objects that the Germans at that period had very little correspondence with the cities of Italy, with the exception of Venice, (p. 139). To this I answer that our universities of Pisa and Bologna, besides several others, were much frequented by young men from Germany, at that period; and that for the convenience both of strangers and of natives, a Dictionary of the German language was printed at Venice, in 1475, and in 1479, at Bologna; a circumstance sufficient of itself to prove that there was no little communication between the two nations. There are, besides, so many other reasons to believe that a great degree of intercourse subsisted, more particularly between Germany and Florence,[115] during the period we treat of; that we ought not to be at all surprised at the arts belonging to the one being communicated to the other. Hitherto I have pleaded, as far as lay in my power, the cause of my country; though without having been able, I fear, to bring the question to a close. Some time, it is possible, that those earliest essays and proofs of the art, which have hitherto eluded research, may be discovered: it is possible that some one of their writers, who are at once so truly learned and so numerous, may improve upon the hint thrown out by Heineken (p. 139), that the Germans and the Italians, without any kind of corresponding knowledge on the subject, struck out simultaneous discoveries of the modern art. However this may chance to be, it is my part to write from the information and authorities which I have before me.

It remains to be seen whether, on the exclusion of Germany, there is any other part of Italy that may have anticipated the discovery of Finiguerra at Florence. Some of his opponents have ventured to question his title on the strength of metallic impressions of seals, which are met with on Italian parchments from the earliest periods. This shews only that the art advanced during several ages on the verge of this invention; but it does not prove that the very origin of the discovery is to be sought for in seals; otherwise we should be bound to commence the history of modern typography from the seals of earthen-ware, with which our museums abound. No one will contend that certain immemorial and undigested elements that lay for many ages neglected and unformed, ought to have a place in the history of art; and this we are now treating on, ought not to date its commencement beyond the period when silversmiths' shops had been established, where, in fact, it took its origin and grew to maturity. We must then compare the proofs remaining to us of their labours, and see whether such proofs were in use at any other place, before the time of Finiguerra. I might observe that there are two threads, as it were, which may serve as a clue to this labyrinth, until we may somewhere or by some means ascertain the actual date; and these two are the character and the design. The character in all the proofs I have examined, is not at all (as we commonly call it) of a gothic description; it is round and roman, according to the observation before made (at p. 49), and does not lead us farther back than the year 1440. The design is more suspicious: in the Durazzo collection I have seen proofs of nielli with more coarse designs than are displayed in the works of Maso, but they are perhaps not the offspring of the Florentine school. I shall not here attempt to anticipate the judgment of those who may engage to illustrate these ancient remains; nor that of the public, in regard to the engravings correctly taken from them, which must pronounce their definitive sentence. If I mistake not, however, true connoisseurs will be cautious how they pass a final opinion. It will not be difficult for them to discern a Bolognese from a Florentine artist, in modern painting, after it is seen that each school formed its own peculiar character both in colouring and in design; but in regard to proofs of nielli,[116] to distinguish school from school, will not be so easy a task. For though it may be ascertained, for instance, that such a proof came from Bologna; can we pronounce from the fact of its being coarser and rawer than the designs of Finiguerra, that it is so far more ancient? Maso and the Florentines, after the time of Masaccio, had already softened their style towards the year 1440; but can we assert the same of the other schools of Italy? Besides, is it certain that the silversmiths, from whose hands proceeded the proofs, sought out the best designers;[117] and did not copy, for instance, the Bolognese, the design of a Pietà by Jacopo Avanzi, or the Venetians, a Madonna by Jacobello del Fiore? The more dry, coarse, and clumsy specimens therefore, cannot easily be adduced against Finiguerra as a proof of greater antiquity; otherwise we should run into the whimsical sophistry of Scalza, who affirmed that the Baronci were the most ancient men in Florence, and in the whole world, because they were the ugliest.[118] We must therefore permit Maso to rest quietly in possession of the discovery, until further and more ancient proofs are adduced, than are to be found in his cards and his zolfi.

In my account of the second state of engraving, I shall not make mention of the German masters, in regard to whom I have not dates that may be thought sufficient; I shall confine my attention to those of Italy. I shall compare the testimony of Vasari and Lomazzo; one of whom supposes the art to have originated in Upper, the other in Lower Italy. In his Life of Marc Antonio, Vasari observes, that Finiguerra "was followed by Baccio Baldini, a Florentine goldsmith, who being little skilled in design, every thing he executed was after designs and inventions of Sandro Botticello. As soon as Andrea Mantegna learned this circumstance at Rome, he first began to turn his attention to the engraving of his own works." Now in the life of Sandro he makes particular mention of the time when he applied himself to the art, which was at the period he had completed his labours in the Sistine chapel. Returning directly after to Florence, "he began to comment upon Dante, he drew the Inferno, and engraved it, which occupying a large portion of his time, was the occasion of much trouble and inconvenience in his future life." Botticelli is here considered an engraver from about 1474, at the age of thirty-seven years; and Baldini, who executed every thing from the designs of Sandro, also practised the art. At the same period flourished Antonio Pollaiuolo, who acquired a higher reputation than either of the last. Few of his impressions remain, but among these is the celebrated battle of the naked soldiers, approaching nearest in point of power to the bold style of Michelangiolo. The epoch of these productions is to be placed about 1480, because having acquired great celebrity by them, he was invited to Rome towards the close of 1483, to raise the monument of Sixtus IV., who died in that year.

According to Vasari, Mantegna having decorated the chapel of Innocent VIII. at Rome, about 1490,[119] from that or the preceding year is intitled to the name of engraver, computing it from about his sixtieth year. He flourished more than sixteen years after this period; during which is it to be believed that he produced that amazing number of engravings,[120] amounting to more than fifty, of which about thirty appear to be genuine specimens, on so grand a scale, so rich in figures, so finely studied and Mantegnesque in every part; that he executed these when he was already old, new to the art, an art fatiguing to the eye and the chest even of young artists; that he pursued it amidst his latest occupations in Mantua, which we shall, in their place, describe, and that he produced such grand results within sixteen or seventeen years. Either Vasari must have mistaken the dates, or wished to impose upon our credulity by his authority. Lomazzo leads us to draw a very different conclusion, when in his Treatise (p. 682) he adds this short eulogy to the name and merits of Mantegna, "a skilful painter, and the first engraver of prints in Italy;" but wherein he does not mention him as an inventor, meaning only to ascribe to him the merit of introducing the second state of the art at least in Italy; because he believed that it had already arisen in Germany. Such authority as this is worth our attention. I shall have occasion in the course of my narrative to combat some of Lomazzo's assertions; but I shall also feel bound to concur with him frequently in the epochs illustrated by him. He was born about twenty-five years subsequent to Vasari; he had more erudition, was a better critic, and on the affairs of Lombardy in particular, was enabled to correct him, and to supply his deficiencies. I am not surprised, then, that Meerman (p. 259) should suppose Andrea to have been already an engraver before the time of Baldini and Botticelli; I could have wished only that he had better observed the order of the epochs, and not postponed the praise due to him until the pontificate of Innocent VIII. In fact, it is not easy to ascertain the exact time when Mantegna first directed his attention to the art of engraving. It decidedly appears that he commenced at Padua; for the very confidence he displays in every plate, shews that he could be no novice; nor is it credible that his noviciate began only in old age. I suspect he received the rudiments of the art from Niccolo, a distinguished goldsmith, as he gave his portrait, together with that of Squarcione, in a history piece of S. Cristoforo, at the Eremitani in Padua; each most probably being a tribute of respect to his former master. It is true that we meet with no specimens of his hand at that, or even a later period of his early life; though we ought to recollect that he never affixed any dates to his works. So that it is impossible to say that none of them were the production of his earlier years, however equal and beautiful they appear in regard to their style; inasmuch as in his paintings we are enabled to detect little difference between his history of S. Cristoforo, painted in the flower of youth, and his altar-piece at S. Andrea of Mantua, which is considered one of his last labours. A specimen of his engraving with a date, is believed, however, by some, to be contained in a book of Pietro d'Abano; intitled "Tractatus de Venenis," published in Mantua, 1472, "in cujus paginâ prima littera initialis aeri incisa exhibetur, quæ integram columnæ latitudinem occupat. Patet hinc artem chalcographicam jam anno 1472 extitisse." Thus far writes the learned Panzer,[121] but whether he ever saw the work that exists in folio, and of seven pages, I am not certain.[122] A quarto edition was likewise edited in Mantua, 1473, and a copy is there preserved in the public library, but without any plates.

It is certain, however, that about this period copper engraving was practised, not only in Mantua, where Mantegna resided, but also in Bologna. The geography of Ptolemy, printed in Bologna by Domenico de Lapis, with the apparently incorrect date of 1462, is in the possession of the Corsini at Rome, and of the Foscarini at Venice.[123] It contains twenty-six geographical tables, engraved very coarsely, yet so greatly admired by the printer, that he applauds this new discovery, and compares it to the invention of printing, which not long before had appeared in Germany. We give his words as they are quoted from the Latin without being refuted, by Meerman, at p. 251: "Accedit mirifica imprimendi tales tabulas ratio, cujus inventoris laus nihil illorum laude inferior, qui primi litterarum imprimendarum artem pepererunt, in admirationem sui studiosissimum quemque facillime convertere potest." The same writer, however, along with other learned men, contends that the date ought to be corrected, chiefly on the authority of the catalogue of the correctors of the work, among whom we find Filippo Beroaldo, who, in 1462, was no more than nine years of age. Hence Meerman infers, that we ought to read 1482; Audifredi and others, 1491; neither of which opinions I can agree with. For the work of Ptolemy being published at Rome, accompanied by twenty-seven elegant charts in 1478, what presumption, or rather folly, in the publisher of the Bolognese edition, to think of applauding its beauty, after the appearance of one so incomparably superior! I am therefore compelled to refer the former to an earlier period than the last mentioned year. Besides, I ought to inform the reader, that the engraving of twenty-six geographical plates, full of lines, distances, and references, must have been a long and difficult task, particularly during the infancy of the art, sufficient to occupy several years; as we are certain that three or four were devoted to the same purpose at Rome by more modern engravers, far more expert. We are therefore bound to antedate the epoch of the Bolognese engraving several years before the publication of the book, which belongs perhaps to the year 1472.[124] I shall not, however, set myself up as an umpire in this dispute; anxiously expecting, as I do, an excellent treatise from the pen of Sig. Bartolommeo Gamba; which I feel assured will not fail to gratify the public.[125] In regard to Bologna, therefore, I shall only seek to prove that the progress of the goldsmith's art to that of engraving upon metal, was more rapid than it has been supposed. Heineken himself observes, in describing the Ptolemy, that it is evident, from the traces of the zigzag, which the goldsmiths are in the habit of putting on the silver plates, the work is the production of one belonging to that art. The earliest works that can be pointed out with certainty at Florence, are the three elegant engravings of the Monte Santo di Dio, published in 1477; and the two in the two cantos of Dante, 1481; one of which, as if a third engraving, was repeated in the same book; while all of them seem to have been drawn from the roller, the art of inserting the plates in the letter-press being then unknown. We have yet to notice the thirty-seven geographical charts, in whatever way executed, affixed to the book of Berlinghieri, which was printed about the same period, without any date. These also contain several heads with the names Aquilo, Africus, &c., but they are all of youthful appearance, and tolerable in point of design; whereas the same heads in Bologna are of different ages, with long beards and caps, and in a coarser manner. The three before mentioned works appeared from the press of Niccolo Tedesco, or Niccolo di Lorenzo de Lamagna, the first who printed books at Florence with copper plates.

The last and most complete state of engraving upon copper, comes next under our notice. For this improvement, it appears to me, we are as much indebted to Germany as for the art of printing books. The press there first discovered for typography, opened the way for that applied to copper plates. The mechanical construction to be sure was different, in the former the impression being drawn from cast letters which rise outwards; in the latter from plates cut hollow within by the artist's graver. A kind of ink was at the same time adopted, of a stronger and less fuliginous colour, than had been used for engravings in wood; but as it is termed by Meerman (p. 12), "singulare ac tenuius." The same author fixes the date of this improvement in the art at about 1470; and most probably he meant to deduce it from the earliest copper engravings which appeared in Germany. Of this I cannot venture to speak, not having seen the two specimens cited by Heineken, and the others that bear a date; nor is it at all connected with our present history of Italian art, as far as regards engraving. We gather from it, that such improvement was brought to us from Germany by the same Corrado Sweyneym, who prepared the beautiful edition of Ptolemy at Rome. We learn from the anonymous preface prefixed, that Corrado devoted three years to the task, and left it incomplete; and it was continued by Arnold Buckinck, and published by him, as I already observed, in 1478. The tables are engraved with a surprising degree of elegance, and are taken from the press, as Meerman, adopting the opinion of Raidelio, and of such bibliographers as have described it, has clearly shewn, (p. 258). It is conjectured that Corrado commenced his labours about 1472, a fact ascertained no less from the testimony of Calderino, the corrector of the work, than from the tables, impressions of which were taken in 1475.[126] Some are of opinion that the engraving was from the hand of Corrado, although the author of the preface simply observes, "animum ad hanc doctrinam capessendam applicuit (that is, to geography) subinde matematicis adhibitis viris quemadmodum tabulis æneis imprimerentur edocuit,[127] triennioque in hâc curâ consumpto diem obiit." And it seems very probable, that as he employed Italians in the correction of the text, he was also assisted by some one of the same nation in the engravings. It strikes me, likewise, that Botticelli was attracted by this novel art at Rome, since on his return about the year 1474, he began to engrave copper plates with all the ardour that Vasari has described, and was in fact the first who represented full figures and histories in the new art. Perhaps the cause of his impressions being less perfect than others, arose from his ignorance of the method of printing upon a single page, both the plates and the characters; as well as from the want of the press, and that improved plan derived from the office of the German printers. But from whatever cause, it is certain, that our engravers long continued to labour under this imperfection in the art, as I have already recounted. In the time of Marc Antonio, who rose into notice soon after the year 1500, the art, in its perfect state, had been introduced into Italy, insomuch that he was enabled to rival Albert Durer and Luca d'Ollanda, equalling them in the mechanism of the art, and surpassing them in point of design. It is from this triumvirate of genius that the more finished age of engraving takes its date; and nearly at the same period we behold the most improved era in the art of painting. The completion of the new art soon diffused good models of design through every school, which led the way to the new epoch. Following the steps of Durer, the imitators of nature learned to design more correctly; while they composed, if not with much taste, at least with great variety and fertility, examples of which appear in the Venetian artists of the time. Others of a more studied character, formed upon the model of Raffaello and of the best Italian masters, exhibited by Marc Antonio, applied with more diligence to compose with order, and to attain elegance of design; as we shall further see in the progress of this History of Painting, which after such necessary interruption, we prepare once more to resume.